The International Monetary Fund (IMF) has fiercely criticised the bailout deal offered to Greece by the Eurozone. It said Greece’s public debt was now ‘highly unsustainable’ and urged debt relief on a scale ‘well beyond what has been under consideration to date.’

Late on Tuesday the 14th of July, the IMF made public advice it had given to the Eurogroup of finance ministers at the weekend. That advice included proposals that would see some of Greece’s enormous debt written off.

The IMF study said EU countries would have to give Greece 30-years to repay all its European debt, including new loans, and a dramatic extension on the maturity of its debts. Without such extensions creditors might have to accept ‘deep upfront haircuts’ on existing loans.

The split between the IMF and Greece’s European creditors over how best to deal with the country’s debt crisis has been hinted at before, but this is the first time such a disagreement has been made public.

Under the new bailout terms, Eurozone governments will contribute between €40bn and €50bn to Greece’s new three-year bailout. The IMF is expected to contribute another major chunk and the rest will come from selling off state assets and the financial markets.

The split between the IMF and the EU comes just hours before the Greek parliament is due to vote on a raft of economic reforms demanded of the Eurogroup over the weekend as a condition of a third Greek bailout.